Peak District Alpine experience...really?

Britain has a host of fantastic climbing from sea cliffs to mountain routes, to gritstone in the Peak district to unique places like the Slate quarries in wales and the lakes. Scottish winter climbing is world renowned and hopefully the winter scene will pick up in wales and the lakes too. But sadly, as a few of my french friends seems to (always) want to point out, in the grand scheme of things we don't have proper mountains.

Well sod you, we have better ethics.

Having finished my small rant about why Britain is the best place for climbing in the world I'll proceed to further my point. My and Rach managed a route of alpine grander in the peak district, and there's another one to do just up the road!

Elbow Ridge probably isn't the most well known of Britains epic ridge routes, but then again the Peak district isn't exactly the home of alpine climbing. The route discription is hidden away inside "On Peak Rock" in the Esoterica section, something that I can only assume more normal people would by-pass. Sadly the Esoterica section contains many classic routes, that if they were say in North Wales, they just be part and parcel of the climbing there. Mam Tor gully is as loose as anything on the Lleyn Penisular, Elbow ridge and Matter Horn Ridge and as thin as Crib Goch (but with less of a walk in). The Raven Stones stomach traverse is probably about as much fun and trampling through the bushes mid summer to finds the base of a route at Tremadog and Chocolate Blamange gully is clearly as dangerous and as fun as climbing over the wet slate scree slopes of the lower oil drum glacier (though probably less life threatening). On Sunday Rachel and I roped up in the best alpine style we could and headed off to tackle Elbow Ridge...

The original plan was to do both ridges, but this would have required 2 things. More time is the first and better weather being the second. Actually I would rather have just has more time. The weather was pretty cool and turned what would have been a complete walk in dry summer conditions into a proper interesting and fun experience. The fog was so thick that after 30 metres of rope I couldn't actually see Rach, which was alright because I had not brought any think more than a 30 metre rope. The wind was also blowing across the ridge so it turned sections that could normally easily walked across into something that it was potentially easy to get blown off.

Our plan was to get up early to do the ridges then get to Northfield to get tattoos done in support of prostate cancer as part of Movember. We didn't exactly get up as early as we'd planned but when has that ever stopped someone from getting out and going climbing. It would just mean we'd have to be a little quicker instead, so we adopted an approach that any aspiring British student alpinist would be proud of and any french alpinist would probably sneer at and packed a small rack (read: medium sized rack) harnesses, helmets and a bottle of water and set off into the peak.

Now I don't really know how to describe the route other than it was awesome. There was a semi-hanging belay, some waist belaying, heavy use of tri-cams, moving together, slipping on wet grass, loose rock, cold hands and finally some epic topping out only to almost slip and fall off. The best part is probably that we filmed it all so I'll try and put a video up asap.

Esoterica (the first)

Every time it I plan to go climbing in the peak district and it rains, my thoughts slip to bad places. A very certain bad place inparticular... The esoterica section in "On Peak Rock". See I've been meaning to try and tick all of these off since I read about them in the first place (I have a similar ambition with the "Rock Bits" section) but I haven't actually done anything about it. Well today was different as although it threatened rain, Rachel and I set off with a plan to climb Elbow Ridge and Matterhorn Ridge in Winnats Pass.

The day started off well, considering that the weather report said it was going to rain. As we drove past Ramshaw I pulled over and parked up. I can't remember who mentioned Louie's Groove (E1 5b) to me or when but the route has been eating away at the back of my mind for a while. What the hell I thought, I may as well just climb it. We still had loads of time to do the ridges and the chance of a grabbing an E point wasn't bad. We ran in and found the quite obvious groove and I geared up and set off. The first section was alright but once you placed your final pieces suddenly the meat of the route was there in front of you. I actually found it quite hard to work out what I had to do. Soon I was smearing and bridging (probably what the yanks referre to as "stemming"?) up the little groove to slape the top. This was my first E1 for quite a while and I still felt the psychological weight of the silly little "E". I guess I just need to keep climbing more!

Rachel quickly seconded this and we bugged out, running back to the car and heading off up the buxton road. When we arrived at Winnat's Pass we had a good look a the ridges and cliffs (and caves high up) on the sides of the pass. Sadly we had to pay for parking at the base of the valley and this wouldn't have been a problem... expect for the complete lack of change. It's funny how something little can mess you up like that. That was probably the turning point in the day as we either needed free parking, change or an new objective. For those who have read the esoterica section you'll know that there is another such objective, with free parking, not far away...

I pulled the car into the little parking space near the gate that shut off the old Mam Tor road. Mam Tor has to be one of the coolest places in the peak district, mainly because it looks like it's been hit by a hollywood earthquake! Our new objective for the day was now Mam Tor Gully, graded "ungradable" and gived a little skull and cross bones symbol in the guidebook. After reading the National Trust rules and regulations that had been taped to the back of a sign we wandered off path leaving our gear in the car to go for a little recon mission. We got pretty close and Rach fancied just carrying on and trying to get to the top without our gear but I wasn't having any of it. My fear of loose rock extended to my head mostly and there was no way in hell I was setting foot in that gully with out my helmet at least.

After a quick trip back to the car we were off again, this time actually carrying some gear but also worried that it might rain while we were on route. Running (well walking quickly) we got to the base of the gully (around grade 1, in winter!) and put on helmets and harnesses. I also fed the rope into my bag so that it'd be ready for use. Rachel opted to climb first, stating that if I pulled a load of stuff down and fell off I'd probably take her out in the process but if she fell off first, I could probably grab her. It sucks being the heavier one sometimes. 


We plodded up and up and the climbing gradually turned from bumbling up and very loose scree slope to actually having the climb (of a sort). I pulled into the main gully, when Rach called for the rope and I looked around for something to belay off. Ha! I must have been joking. Maybe if I'd thought to pack a warthog and a peg hammer I might have had something resembling a safe belay but as it happened good old hope and will power would have to do. I sent the rope down and she hurriedly clipped in and I started waist belayin. My belay literally consisted of my feet braced on some crumbling shale. Being honest, I was quite scared.


When Rachel arrived at my "belay" I had her stand on a ledge off to one side. This ledge was still crumbling away, like most of the stuff we where on but it was at least crumbling significanlty slower than the rest. Both slightly paniced but trying to retain some composed I assured her it would be alright as I flaked the rope into a neat pile at her feet. I then set off trailing rope from my pack but the final section. I didn't dare head up the gully direct as the fridge sized blocks above us looked like they'd squish Rach if I was dumb enough to disturb them. Instead I skirted around them and up the grass, clinged to great clumps of it as handholds and my footholds crumbled away beneath me. Scrambling desperatly I mae it too the top and shouted I was "safe!". Was I really safe? no. Instead I found the best braced stance I could and yelled for Rach to climb when she was ready.


Rach headed straight up the gully and tackled said loose blocks carefully climbing and trying not to dislodge them in the process. I though I was going to be in alot of trouble for suggesting this as a route but she arrived at the top almost shaking with fear but smiling broadly. She'd loved it. I voted we rest on the tope for a while before packing up the gear and descending back down to the car. 


Not a bad route route for a consolation prize!